Additive manufacturing, or “3D printing,” has recently become a popular way to create articles. 3D printing does not require the tooling and setup costs of a major production run, and in many instances, can be carried out on a relatively inexpensive 3D printer that may reside at the home of a user. Many commercially available 3D printing machines use files with the STL format; consequently, there is an ever-growing online library of shapes that can be made directly in a person's home.
3D printers can use a wide variety of materials including metals, ceramics, polymers, elastomers, and composites. Often, the material to be used for printing is stored in the form of a wire or “filament” that can be drawn into the 3D printer and used until depleted. The filament may be purchased, stored, and/or drawn from a material dispenser.
One common problem with existing 3D printers is knowing how much material remains in a given material dispenser. If there is insufficient material to carry out a given fabrication operation, the desired article will only be partially-formed. The user may not be able to resume the operation with new material; hence, the partially-formed article (and the material used to create it) may be wasted. Additionally, many known 3D printing systems do not indicate how much material is required by a given fabrication operation and/or how much material a given material dispenser contains.